Chapter 19: The Power of Choice

Galen summoned me that evening.

We had sailed back from Katara Isle. I spent the time alone, bound, and in silence. Arriving back at the Citadel, they removed the ropes and sequestered me to my room for a few hours, where more salves and oils waited. I used them, changed into new clothes, and rested, waiting.

Waiting has always been torture for me. As a teen, it was worse. So when Lyne arrived to take me to meet with Galen, I bounded up from my bed, despite the dull pains over my body, and went along. No matter what Galen decided, it was better than waiting.

Halfway up the tower to Galen’s study, I rethought my eagerness. My legs and ribs yelled at me the whole way. I made it to the top of the tower, Lyne quiet beside me, and stood before the door with the Citadel emblem mounted on the wood, the golden eagle with swords as wings. Lyne left me there.

I hadn’t even knocked when Galen’s voice called from within. “Enter.”

Turning the latch on the door, I pushed it open and moved inside.

Galen sat at the same desk, although this time he stared at me, his hands in his lap. He gestured to a chair. “Sit.”

I strode over to the chair and settled within it.

“I am deciding if I should kill you now,” Galen said. “This is your chance to convince me to live.”

“And Felix?”

“I must also determine what to do with him.”

My stomach tightened. “Another test?”

Galen’s lips became a line. “As I said before, everything is a test, an opportunity for us to see who you are and who you will become.”

“I understand.”

The elf’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure you do. You are human, and for many of the elves in the Citadel here, it was folly to even bring you here, much less to teach or train you. It is utter insanity for some to consider sending you back to your homeland with that training. I gave you a command, and you refused. You have no value to us if we cannot trust you.”

I nodded. “Just so we’re clear, I wouldn’t kill a defenseless boy.”

“You will have to kill people as a Bladeguard.”

“In battle, sure,” I said.

“You believe your future is one of battle alone? We assassinate and work in the shadows more than any ever see.”

My jaw tightened. “What happened today wasn’t an assassination. It was an execution.”

Galen waved a hand. “The command doesn’t matter. Only obedience.”

“You’re saying you have the power to tell me to do anything you wish, and I have to comply? Despite what is right and wrong?”

“You’re not the one to determine what is best for the Empire, what is right and wrong.” Galen shifted his weight. “That is for other, better beings, people who have lived for a thousand years. You’ve lived, what, fourteen years? And you believe you understand the complexities and complications to run an Empire?”

I shook my head. “Not at all. I wouldn’t try to run an Empire even if I could.”

“And yet you still refused my command? That was a central test, and you failed.”

I sniffed. “I disagree.”

Galen blinked. “Explain.”

“If you say I failed according to your standards, then yes, that’s true. But my concern wasn’t for you or the Empire or Iletus or whoever. I was concerned with something more important.”